South – Insula: Front Cover Shoot (Photos/Video)

Following the launch of South’s debut album ‘Insula’ in Whelan’s with The Lions Mane & Sticky Digit last Friday, I can finally upload the cover shot used on the album, along with a strobist shot from the test shoot and a behind the scenes video from the studio photoshoot.

First up is the shot from the test shoot in my sitting room; having spent a lot of time in the Mill studio with the lads during recording, we had worked out some ideas for the cover; the main ideas involving the band, a couch and a big old television.

With the recording finished and the tracks in the mixing stages, we met up for two photo-shoots on the last weekend in May. The first on the Saturday night, I re-arranged the furniture in my sitting room and used every lamp and light I could find around the house to try different lighting techniques, while the lads chilled out on the couch finding gross things on the internet.

Most of the lighting set-ups were a disaster but the set-up for the finished shot is as follows: there’s a household lamp positioned behind the couch to back-light the lads, another lamp positioned to the right of Ken as a side-light and another lamp lighting the back of the television. The glow from the television wasn’t bright enough to light all three faces so I used the screen from my Powerbook G4 and my Sb800 positioned on the floor (I can’t remember the setting).

The resulting shot was the best thing I got on the night but wasn’t exactly what I was going for or suitable for the album cover, but that’s the great thing about test shoots. The following afternoon we drove to the new HotShotz Studio in Callan (thanks Benny) and having a better idea of what we were now going for, I set up the studio for my first ever shoot on a Canon (EOS 5D with a EF24-105mm Zoom).

My first proper studio shoot was a lot of fun, I spent some time spotting the lights and we spent the afternoon tweaking positions and poses as you can see in the behind the scenes video from the photoshoot (above).

If you haven’t got your hands on a copy of Insula yet then the video features the awesome track  ‘Acid’ and a look at the finished front cover design by Ken McGuire.

The album will be available online in the next few weeks through SouthOfficial.com but until then if you want to purchase a copy of Insula then just get in touch with South on MySpace.

South – ‘The Making Of Insula’ Episode 3

South – ‘The Making Of Insula’ Episode 3 is now online. This is the final episode in the series and another exclusive sneak preview to a brand new previously unheard South song.

This episode was easily the toughest to cut together; I had to shave about 14 minutes off it. It meant having to sacrifice a lot of good footage which unfortunately wouldn’t stand alone. In some cases it meant cutting some scenes short, in others it meant losing entire songs from the web-series.

The final installment begins like Episode 2; with another out-take’s slash ‘Previously’ sequence; a brief look at some of the laughs and “Christian Bale moments” during the recording sessions, before moving on to look at the recording of ‘Acid’ (previously unheard).

Anybody who saw the teaser trailer will recognise the first shot; which tracks through the studio just before Daw begins on the drums. For those interested; this is the only opportunity to see the benefits of colour grading, as the teaser trailer shows the raw footage compared to the overall finished look.

This sequence with the drums had to be cut very short, the full length version covers the entire drum take; with Daw messing up at the end only to have to start again. Several times. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t put it all in.

Instead, the episode moves on to recording the bass for ‘Acid’, some technical difficulties, a bit of worrying, Ken’s hilarious struggle with “the retarded tuner”. There’s a sneak preview of “the magic sex chords” for previously unheard ‘Over My Eyes’ and more.

As the days in the studio passed by in a blur, the lads slowly but surely ticked off their progress on the chart, songs were finished, a lot of munch got munched, we drank way too much Monster Ripper and Thomas slowly got used to me sticking a camera in his face and finally did some talking.

Episode 3 finishes with a final sneak preview, another previously unheard song ‘Life Goes On’, which features on the soon to be launched debut album. This was actually the second music video sequence I cut together during the editing process. This was when I first figured out how to layer the footage so I could show more than one thing at the same time. I was wary of getting too carried away with using the effect but given the limits of operating the two cameras at the same time and sound of the song in particular, I wanted to blend the footage so the transitions flowed with the song (my favourite transition happens at about 8mins 26 secs).

The final episode going online brings me close to the end of my first solo project. I still have a whole bunch of photos that I’ll get them online in the coming weeks. You can check out my brand new Episode 3 promo shot here on the Oss237.com homepage. The response and feedback to the project has been very encouraging so far and as always comments, criticism or feedback are greatly appreciated.

Don’t forget that South & The Lions Mane will take to the stage in Cleere’s Theatre this Saturday. It’s going to be awesome! Doors open 9:30pm and admission is €6.

South – ‘The Making Of Insula’ Episode 2

South – ‘The Making Of Insula’ Episode 2 is now online. If you haven’t watched Episode 1 yet then click here.

The second installment in the series begins with a little “Previously” sequence, although it’s more of an out-take sequence; seeing as none of the footage seen actually appears in the first episode. Over the course of the recording process the running joke in the studio (every time something went wrong or we were having a laugh) was for somebody to say “previously on South”. When it came to cutting the footage, instead of losing all of the funny bits I simply cut them into a little previously section.

Episode 2 begins by filling in the missing pieces from Episode 1; covering the guitar and bass recording for ‘Downpour’. The first episode could have given the impression that recording the song was quick and easy, I wanted to show that the process took a couple of days; as each instrument was recorded on a different day and the song was slowly pieced together.

It’s also important to note that bassist (and ladie’s man) Ken Farrell says that ‘Downpour’ is “the last song on the album”; at the time of recording it was but having reviewed the finished tracks the lads from South decided to change the track listing and ‘Downpour’ is now track 9 but rest assured it’s still “got rain in it”!

This episode also shows a bit more of the difficulties faced by Producer/Engineer Alan Dawson as he tried to record himself playing the drums. There’s also some bass and guitar takes for different songs that appear on the album. Because of time-constraints I had to cut about 4 minutes off this episode; meaning quite a few takes and songs had to be cut.

Shooting without any script meant that when cutting it was difficult to keep whole conversations that ran too long. I had to chop bits and pieces of dialogue and sometimes cut it so people are actually having conversations with themselves over different days. So when trying to put some narrative structure to the whole thing and keep it at a good pace; I decided to cut back and forth between the scenes. Only showing what was necessary to piece it all together.

As with the previous episode (and the final one), this episode features a song that will appear on the upcoming album, in this case ‘Symmetry‘. This music video sequence was actually the third one I cut together, back when the plan was for four episodes, but once I chopped it down to three I decided to swap the music-video sequences around so that the final episode would finish with another brand new song.

By the time it came to cutting ‘Symmetry’, I had gotten a bit more adventurous with my cutting patterns; I had discovered that by layering the shots, I could show more going on at the same time. This is also used in Episode 3, but in an effort to keep similiar shots/set-ups fresh and make the videos separate to each other; with ‘Symmetry’ I tried alternating cutting patterns between the layers, cutting to the music so that most of the time what you see at that point is what you really hear when you listen to the song. I’m not sure if that will make sense when you read it but hopefully it will when you watch the video.

As always comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone who watched the first episode; myself and the lads from South have been very happy with all the feedback. Hopefully you’ll enjoy this new episode just as much.

South – ‘The Making Of Insula’ Episode 3 goes online next Friday.

South – ‘The Making Of Insula’ Episode 1

South – ‘The Making Of Insula’ Episode 1 is now online… finally! After 13 weeks of stressing and working on the series, I can’t wait to hear what people think of the first installment.

Episode 1 begins as the recording sessions began; back in April on the first day in the Mill Studio, as the lads from South set up their gear. The mood was giddy and as they got everything ready; Daw tried to get his head around the idea of recording himself playing the drums. The first few days of recording focused on the drums so when editing the footage it seemed natural for the first episode to go that way.

As with the two upcoming episodes; this episode pays particular attention to an individual song, in this case, the previously unheard track ‘Downpour’, which will appear on South’s upcoming debut (out July 31st). I don’t know how many times I’ve had to listen to this song, it doesn’t really matter because I don’t think I can get tired of it, but when cutting the music-video sequence together I kept it to a fairly basic cutting style in comparison to the episodes that follow. At this stage I must also point out that the music used is not the final mix of the song, you’ll have to wait until the album comes out on July 31st, but it’s an awesome sneak preview.

As my first completely solo-project, it was difficult to come to terms with trying to do a two camera shoot on my own. I had to constantly be thinking the cuts in my head; with the Canon XAH1 (recording on tape) set up on a tripod to capture my master shot of each instrument during each take (and using the manual focus to get some nice pick-up shots in between), whilst always moving around getting cut-to’s on the Canon HG10 (recording on hard drive) mounted on my steadycam. The result was a hell of a lot of coverage that needed to be synced and then chipped away at.

Now that it’s finally finished I’d like to say thanks to the people who helped along the way; firstly thanks to Thomas, Ken and Daw for the opportunity to join them and work on something together, our time together in the studio was so much fun. I know it can’t have been easy to constantly have a camera in your face but thanks for not pulling a Christian Bale every time I moved a light or a flash went off in your face!? Having watched all the episodes with the lads during the week; I’m delighted to say that they loved them and I’m looking forward to working on music videos and the tour in the coming weeks.

I also have to say a huge thank you to Alan Slattery; for providing me with equipment and constant technical advice throughout the entire process. From frantic phone calls because I thought I broke his camera on the first day; because there’s a stupid button on the side that appears to have the only function of: making a camera act broken!? To solving the problem of each camera recording in a different codec through tape & hard drive. Right through the endless questions: how do I do that? What’s that yoke? I pushed this and now what’s happened? How do I make it do that and then turn everything inside out!? Thank you Sla and thanks for the colour grading that made everything look awesome in the end!

If your reading this then, please take 10 minutes to sit back and watch South – ‘The Making Of Insula’ Episode 1. As always comments would be greatly appreciated and don’t forget Episode 2 goes online next week and if you’re on Twitter then don’t forget to follow South for updates and news (and let them know what you think of ‘Downpour’).

‘The Making Of Insula’ Editing Complete & Feedback on ‘The Game’

It’s been quite a productive week working on South – ‘The Making Of Insula’; I passed the full length cut on to Daw who completed the proper sound mix, then myself & Sla sorted the colour grading and added the finishing touches to the overall look.

Today, I sat down to begin the final cuts; separating footage in to the three episodes. I really thought this would take longer than it did, given that I would have to trim off over 20 minutes to get the episodes under 10 minutes each, but I’m delighted to say that as of this evening; the editing process is almost complete. I’ve just got to add the titles and credits.

The first episode was the easiest to cut together, this was probably due to the way I started editing the project in the beginning and the way the start of the Insula recording process worked. Episode 2 got a little trickier as the recording process became more scattered; different instruments playing different songs on different days.

The third and final episode was a nightmare; running about 12 minutes over, it meant I had to cut quite a lot of perfectly good footage. It’s always difficult to cut out something good but it had to be done. Unfortunately, even though the stuff that was being cut out was long enough to make up a fourth episode, it was just lacking the structure it needed to stand alone.

Tomorrow, I’ll add the titles and credits. During the week the lads from South will be the first to watch the completed episodes and if there’s no major problems; episode 1 will go online next weekend followed by an episode a week. After 13 weeks (from shooting to editing), I’m really excited to see what people think.

On another note, I’d like to say thanks to everyone for all their feedback on ‘The Game‘, when I put the short online two days ago I wasn’t expecting the response it got. Cheers to everyone for their comments and feedback on YouTube and here on my blog. I’ve even had a couple of emails and phone calls about it!? Oh and thanks to Anthony and Ken for posting it on their blogs.

One thing I would like to point out; with most video posts I always ask viewers to watch it in HD for best results. However, I’m annoyed to find that when watching it in HD on Youtube, the full results of the muzzle flash are lost. I’m not sure if this is to do with the frame rate that the videos play in HD but the frame with the actual flash isn’t there!? So, if you haven’t watched it yet then for best results please just watch it as normal.

The response and feedback have been very encouraging and that was only a test, hopefully everything that’s to follow will be as well received.

South – ‘The Making Of Insula’ Episode 1 will go online next weekend!

South – ‘The Making Of Insula’ (TRAILER 2)

Plans are being made to get the sound mix and final cuts underway, given the amount of work that still needs to be done, it’ll probably be about two weeks before the first episode of South – ‘The Making Of Insula‘ appears online.

Personally I can’t wait to have it finished; my first real solo-project has taken quite a lot of work but even at this stage I’m really happy with the results. Every single aspect of the project; from operating the two camera shoot by myself to cutting the episodes together has been an awesome way of “learning by doing” and I can’t wait to see what people think.

As I cut through all the footage one of the hardest things was having to let go of something good; cutting footage out for one reason or another, usually time constraints.The overall structure follows South in the Mill Studio throughout the recording process for Insula, but it will pay particular attention to some songs more than others.

I made this decision from the start for several reasons, mainly due to the sheer volume of footage I would have shot over a two week period, on two cameras covering guitar, bass, drums, vocals and all the in-between stuff. At present I just wouldn’t have the ability to edit it all. We’ve also got lots of plans and ideas for videos for certain songs so there’s no point in saturating everything with too much coverage.

In the case of previously unheard (and awesomely titled) South track ‘Zombie Attack’ which will feature on their debut album; I only had one single take during the recording of the song (it wasn’t on my list). That being said, the song is awesome and I really wanted it to feature somewhere in the whole thing and so I’ve cut together a second trailer (above).

The new trailer offers a sneak preview of what ‘Zombie Attack’ sounds like, direct from the mixing room in the Mill Studios. Featuring Alan Dawson on drums, Thomas Donoghue on guitar and Ken “For the ladies” Farrell on bass as the lads from South were laying down a rough version of the song before tackling each individual instrument. This is the only time you’ll hear any preview of ‘Zombie Attack’ before the album gets released as even the above footage won’t appear in any of the episodes.

You can also check out my brand new promo shot here on the Oss237.com homepage. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts; the entire shoot was also my first real attempts working with off-camera flash triggers and the new shot is another addition to what I’m being told is “my style”. The usual camera display type thing with focus thrown on the background and sharp on the monitor (on a Canon XHA1), shot on my 50mm with my SB800 positioned across the room, full power directed at Ken’s hands as he plays the bass. I’ve add some textures afterwards in the same style as the first promo image. Check it out here.

As always any feedback or criticism would be greatly appreciated. Plenty more coming soon!

Please watch the above video in HD for best results.

South: ‘The Making Of Insula’ – Full Length Rough Cut

Last night, I finished the full length rough cut of South ‘The Making Of Insula‘, at the moment the entire project is running at about 50 minutes.

The full length assembly proved to be a bit of a nightmare; the songs (that are being featured) were cut together first, then it was a matter of assembling the rest of the footage and putting it in some sort of order and structure. Given that there was no script, it was like trying to put a huge jigsaw together without knowing what the picture looked like!?

Different instruments playing different songs were recorded on different days throughout the two week process, it meant having to bounce around the time-line quite a bit to keep it all together.

After watching the full length rough cut last night, I’m very happy with how everything is looking so far. I’ve made plenty of notes; mostly footage that can be shaved down or cut completely, but overall it’s starting to take shape. For the fine cut, I’ll be looking to cut the running time severely; at least for the online version.

My initial hopes were for four online episodes but I met a couple of problems along the way and at present; the plan is to separate the current cut into 3X10minute episodes to be released online. Which means I’ll be cutting about 20 minutes off the web version; I will be editing a full length version but I’m not quite sure what will happen with it, if anything!? We have a couple of ideas floating around but there’s no need to go into them yet.

Tomorrow, I’m getting a crash course in colour-correction and after effects, the plan is to clean up the full cut before separating the footage into the episodes. There’s also the sound mix! I’m not entirely sure how long all of this will take but I’m happy that it’s moving along on schedule.

Last night, I cut together a new trailer and pending a meeting with the lads from South this weekend; that should hopefully appear online in the next few days.

South: ‘The Making Of Insula’ – Progress Report & New Promo Pic

It’s been a few weeks since an update on ‘The Making Of Insula‘; whilst I haven’t had much time editing the videos for the past week, I can say that most of them are now at rough-cut assembly stages.

I’ve got one more segment to tackle; the footage has been synced and I’m going to try out yet another style for this video, with each of the episodes having a slight difference to cutting patterns and style based on the songs themselves.

I’m hoping to have them fully assembled in the next week or so before doing the fine cuts and then looking at some colour correction and after effects. Then a proper sound mix. My “to do” list is still fairly long but I’m happy that the project is running roughly in time with approaching deadlines.

As it stands the tracks for South’s debut offering are in the final mixing stages, soon to be mastered. South should also be announcing the launch & tour dates very soon, so keep an eye on their newly revamped MySpace.

Two weeks ago I did a series of photoshoots with the lads with the intention of shooting the cover & promo material for the album. The first shoot took place on a Saturday night, transforming my sitting room, moving the furniture around and confiscating every moveable light source I could get my hands on to test different lighting techniques and ideas. Shooting on a 19-35mm wide angle lens (thanks Ken) for the first time. The resulting photos & behind the scenes videos may never be seen!? I’ve still got a lot of work to do on them and the content may just be too funny. Maybe the less I say about it… the better!?

The following Sunday we hit the new HotShotz Studio in Callan (thanks Benny), continuing with the same ideas from the night before we shot a series of cover possibilities. The shoot was my first shoot using a Canon 5D using a EF21-105mm macro zoom lens with a full studio lighting setup behind me. And although I can’t publish any of the shots online yet, rest assured they’ll be coming in the next few weeks.

I have uploaded a sort of teaser image from the studio shoot, a bit of filler until the rest goes online, a brand new behind the scenes shot from my studio shoot with South. Shot on my Nikon D80, 19-35mm wide angle lens, on a tripod, using the timer. Then a bit of playing around with texture layers.

Check it out here, plenty more coming soon.

The Making Of Insula – Editing Diary: Downpour Assembly

Syncing footage is a slow and painful process, one that can well and truly fry your brain. With two camera setups on each instrument during the recording sessions it means I’ve got quite a bit of syncing to do.

It took several hours just to sync all the instruments for one song, after a while it’s so confusing trying to organise all the footage on the timeline, and then sync it up.

Thankfully Daw sat in with me throughout the process, he was also able to point out bits of footage that can’t be used; changes that were made to songs during recording etc. But we did manage to cut some shots to measure up to songs in other places which was quite handy.

It can be kind of difficult to put a narrative structure on something when you’re shooting without a script. Trying to blend into the background and just let the lads do their thing, not distract them whilst trying to keep on track of what I’m shooting on both cameras all the time.

That being said, as I begin to go through the footage, I’m delighted with the coverage of everything and how it accurately captures the mood and feeling in the studio during the recording process.

With all the coverage of ‘Downpour’ (it’s previously unheard ) ready to go, I couldn’t resist starting a rough assembly of the cuts. It’s easily going to be one of my favourite songs on ‘Insula‘; filled with catchy vocals and harmonies, the song slowly builds into chunky riffs and an awesome breakdown before drifting into an eerie ending.

I chiselling away at the footage and the rough assembly is already looking better than I imagined, it still needs a lot of work but it can only get better and as it’s taking shape I’ve also been able to figure out the structure of the project and how it will be presented.

All of which is still quite a bit away, for now it’s back to syncing footage…

The Making Of Insula – Editing Diary(Part 1)

The editing process has finally begun on ‘South – The Making Of Insula’; having uploaded the teaser trailer last week I got a bit side-tracked;

My birthday celebrations turned into a night of carnage and death-defying stunts, NoFx made a dream come true when they played ‘The Decline’ in the Olympia on Saturday night and just as I finally think I’m getting my head around editing, I run headfirst in to completely baffling technical issues. Thankfully, I have a Sla.

The shoot with South was a two-camera setup; using a Canon XHA1 (shooting on miniDV) as the main camera and a Canon HG10 (shooting straight to harddrive) as a secondary camera for pick-ups and cut-to’s. Focussing on the HG10 can be pretty limited, there’s no manual focus so I used the XHA1 for master coverage of takes on each instrument during the recordings. The XHA1 was set up on a tripod whilst I moved around getting cut-to’s on the HG10 using my miniDv steadicam.

Shooting with two cameras by yourself can be tricky, it’s important to keep track of what you’re shooting on each camera and trying to avoid shooting the same things on both (unless of course you want to!?). Having watched all the footage, I’m really happy with the coverage I have.

Last week I transferred all the footage onto my iMac and did some back-ups, it was a bit of a slow process; working with tapes can be a pain in the ass, the handy thing about the HG10 is how quick transferring footage can be.

Having transferred the footage from both cameras; I had my first problem; formatting!? It’s something I get the point of, but just can’t figure out. As I’ve said before; thankfully I have a Sla!

After a couple of days set-back, I’ve finally begun editing today. The first task was going through all of the footage from the XHA1 and separating the shots. For some reason, it doesn’t recognise the cuts. I think it’s something to do with how I logged the footage!? Either way I don’t care, it’s finally all in one project and ready to go.

Tomorrow, I’ll start syncing footage from both cameras and label the set-ups before beginning a rough cut.

I’m also still getting my head around the whole strobist style, I’ve uploaded a new shot to the main page of Oss237.com, it was shot strobist style; 50mm lens, I can’t remember the exact settings as I tested several, SB800 at half-power positioned in the corner of the room using the glow from my iMac, Powerbook G4 and the HG10 as back lighting. CHECK IT OUT!

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